Welcome to Better Europe’s weekly update on EU Affairs.
LA RENTRÉE — BRUSSELS VS BERLIN
Brussels is finally waking up from its summer snooze, as the Parliamentary recess comes to and end next week and politicians are preparing for “la rentrée”. This year’s school session is special, as some major decisions on the EU’s next seven-year budget are due: the size of the EU’s central budget and what we will be spending it on. Interestingly, the leader of the Member State that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “knows best”, had made a bold opening move saying he wants to slash “several hundred billion” from the EU’s long-term budget and also block the Commission’s request for 2 500 new staff. After all, austerity in Berlin means austerity in Brussels. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is not alone — he brings quite a few friends from the frugal and not-so-frugal block. Most of the negotiations will be late-night backroom discussions in the Council building as Member States, later joined by MEPs, are to trash out an agreement on the EU’s next budget. But von der Leyen has one major chance to claim the moral high ground, with her State of the Union address on 16 September in Strasbourg. It’s been a rough year since the last “SOTEU”, with Donald Trump back in the White House to really implement his “America First” policy. A seat will be reserved in Strasbourg for Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister who dared to stand up to Tantrum Trump this summer, but best known in Europe for his controversial stint at the helm of the Bank of England where he pushed back against reduced leverage ratios and bank break-ups. If the stock photos on the Commission’s “Towards SOTEU” website are any indication of what to expect, Ursula will talk about cross-border trains, the new EU Inc. company statute, and of course European defence capabilities. Did you order your popcorn yet?
MEMBER STATES FIGHT TURF WAR OVER EU FINANCIAL SUPERVISORS
Two European Supervisory Authorities are getting a few fresh faces — just in time for the next round of turf wars. Next week, Parliament’s ECON committee will grill the nominees to replace the outgoing chair of financial markets authority ESMA and the executive director of banking authority EBA, as of November. Pensions and insurance czar Petra Hielkema was reappointed as EIOPA chair in May, but the two other European financial supervisors will see a change of leadership this autumn. The most notable departure? Verena Ross, who after 10 years as ESMA’s Executive Director and five as Chair, leaves behind a legacy. Together with Steven Maijoor, the first Chair, she built up the authority from its predecessor CESR, the Committee of European Securities Regulators, to the largest EU financial authority with direct supervision powers. As in the past, MEPs would have preferred to have several candidates to choose from and preferably of different genders. However, the choice is again extremely limited, with MEPs are expected to adopt two reports to endorse the two candidates, Italian supervisor Carlo Comporti for ESMA and German ECB staffer Thomas Gstaedtner as the EBA’s number two. Both are Europeans, yes, but the passport plays a role. Some in the press admitted that nationality matters, celebrating that “Italy’s Carlo Comporti wins control of Europe’s financial watchdog” over the alternative Danish candidate, Karen Dortea Abelskov. However, the real drama lies in what comes next. As countries battle over the Market Integration and Supervision Package, the same old question resurfaces: how much power should the ESAs actually have? And what should be the role of the Boards of Supervisors where all member states continue to have a seat, with national flags in front of them in the meeting rooms in Paris and Frankfurt?
VEGGIE BURGERS: THIRD TIME, WELL DONE
For the third time in six years, the Parliament is grilling the language we use for plant-based meat substitutes. It’s totally fine to call a patty with 20% animal protein a hamburger, even if there is no ham in there, and certainly not a Hamburger. But the biggest problem that Europe is currently facing, according to right-wing MEPs, is that people dare to use “hamburger” for products that do not contain any meat at all. As part of negotiations on the EU’s common market rules, there was an agreement in June to reserve ‘only’ 31 words for products of animal origin, excluding generic format-related terms. So, plant-based burgers and sausages could continue to be sold as such. But French cereal farmer and lead Parliament negotiator Céline Imart is not happy and wants to re-open the discussion. Meanwhile, Europe burns — literally. Citizens and farmers are grappling with droughts, wildfires, and costs of living, while the EU fights red tape to improve “competitiveness”. But when it comes to protecting Europeans against accidentally purchasing a burger without meat, admin burden is totally fine. In Germany alone, banning veggie burgers and their friends would cost up to 250 euro million euros for re-translating and marketing, according to the NoConfusion coalition. One might almost believe it is a cowspiracy to distract from real problems.